I'm just starting to have a play with AdSense (I've never had a website that's suited or justified it before) and I was wondering if it's possible to only show very specific ads.
The site is credit card based - and specifically Amex - and so I only want to show ads related to Amex cards, preferably from American Express themselves. I created a quick ad last night and put it on an empty test page and it's currently showing an OcUK ad (ie my cookie/history-based). Not exactly relevant!
Any help appreciated.
You can't stipulate specific ads, but you can influence the type of ads with the content of the site. So, if all your content is about credit cards, you can expect to see ads about those services appear more frequently. If your text is rich with Amex references, you can expect to see their ads appear more often. But you'll also see ads about other financial services too, and it's likely that you'll see those for Amex's competitors as well.
That's because Google also uses a couple of other methods to determine the ads visitors will see. One is placement, where advertisers will pay to have their ads in a specific position on a particular page. In this case, the advertisers will usually have a site in mind that they've obtained from your listing in the AdSense program. Which is fine if Amex spot your site but maybe not so good if Visa decide to target the home page of every finance site.
The third method is based on the user's interests. If someone visits finance sites, then there's more likelihood that they'll be served credit card ads when they visit yours. If they visit gaming sites, then they'll most likely see ads for those. In fact, that's precisely what happened to you when you made your test page...because it was an empty page (other than the ad code) there was no content Google could use to determine the most appropriate type of ads. Because it was a new page, it wouldn't have been listed so advertisers wouldn't have been able to use placement. So Google resorted to using the advertising cookie that is already stored on your PC, which is why you saw the OcUK advert.
In a nutshell, the text content and design of your site will have the most influence on the ads you can expect to see. This may be over-ridden if an advertiser selects your site for a particular placement campaign. Finally, if there's insufficient content, or no placement, Google will use interest-based ads.
Lastly, bear in mind that:
- Google doesn't guarantee that you will get specific ads
- Even with the right content, it can take a few weeks before the ads start to become more relevant for your site
- Vistors can opt out of receiving certain ads using the Ads Preference Manager - someone who opts out of finance related advertising will never see an Amex advert even if you can see them plastered all over the site
- Google also uses geotargeting to show the most appropriate ad for the visitor, and not necessarily the site owner. Someone in America is therefore more likely to see an Amex ad on your site than someone from Burkino Faso, for example.
Hope that helps
